The Advanced Television Systems Committee presented its highest honor, the Bernard J. Lechner Outstanding Contributor Award, to Mark A. Aitken at its annual meeting last week.

“Mark has been a consistent advocate for the advancement of terrestrial broadcasting technology,” said ATSC’s president, Mark Richer. “His passion for the future of our industry has made him a strong leader in ATSC activities including the development of our Mobile Digital TV Standard.”

Aitken is actively participating in the development of ATSC 3.0, the next generation broadcast platform, which will likely be incompatible with the current digital delivery platform. Aitken’s participation is good news for broadcasters, during the development of the current 8-VSB ATSC transmission system more than a decade ago, Aitken was among the first to point out the limitations of using single carrier modulation, arguing that a COFDM system would work better under real-world conditions. He conducted numerous tests and demonstrations and published several papers on the results. Such critical analysis will be important as selection of a new transmission standard moves forward.

As Sinclair Broadcasting’s vice president of advanced technology, Aitken worked to obtain an experimental license allowing transmission of DVB-T2 over Sinclair's WNUV in Baltimore to provide testing needed to evaluate performance claims and help determine the best technology for ATSC 3.0.

The ATSC announcement has more information on Aitken's career and the Bernard J. Lechner award.